Sodium Carbonate (Soda Ash) – Uses, Prices, and Production

This blog is the sixteenth in a series of blogs I plan to write providing use, price, and production data on high-use inorganic and organic chemicals.  Click here to see the first blog in this series and a list of chemicals to be featured.  This blog provides data on sodium carbonate.  The primary purpose of these blogs is to present estimates of recent price, production, and sales revenues for the chemicals.  The last blog in this series will compare price, production, and sales data for all the chemicals. 

Uses.  Uses of sodium carbonate include:

Ø  In manufacturing glass (~50% of use);

Ø  In producing soaps and detergents (~5 to 10% of use);

Ø  In making paper;

Ø  In water treatment;

Ø  In various food processing activities;

Ø  As a water softener;

Ø  As a pH modifier;

Ø  As an electrolyte;

Ø  As a wetting agent; and

Ø  As a foaming agent in tooth pastes.

Prices.  Average 2019 global sodium carbonate prices are estimated to range from $150 to $250 per metric ton (mt).         

Production.   Sodium carbonate can be produced synthetically by reacting sodium chloride, calcium carbonate (limestone), ammonia, and carbon dioxide (the Solvay Process).   This accounts for about 70% of sodium carbonate used globally.

Or sodium carbonate can be mined from naturally-occurring deposits (about 30% of sodium carbonate used globally).

From the internet, estimated 2019 global production of sodium carbonate is 58 million mt.  Using 58 million mt and an average per mt price of $200 (see Prices above) gives revenues generated by sodium carbonate in 2019 of $11.6 billion (58 million mt times $200 per mt).